Axalta Distinguished Lectures

The Axalta Distinguished Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania is part of an ongoing program of cooperation and interaction between scientists at Axalta Coating Systems and the Department of Chemistry of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. As the only global company focused 100% on coatings, Axalta Distinguished Lectures Axalta Coating Systems is committed to advancing the science, especially the chemistry of materials for producing coatings that are built to perform. Sponsored by Axalta Coating Systems

Past speakers: 1987 Herbert C. Brown – Purdue University Craig J. Hawker 1988 George M. Whitesides – Harvard University Alan and Ruth Heeger Chair of Interdisciplinary Science 1989 Donald J. Cram – UCLA University of California, Santa Barbara 1990 Paul C.W. Chu – University of Houston 1991 Jean-Marie Lehn – Université Louis Pasteur The Power of Organic Chemistry in 1992 R.E. Smalley – Rice University 1993 Elias J. Corey – Harvard University Polymer Synthesis: Translation of Basic 1994 P.G. de Gennes – École de Physique et Chimie Materials Research into Social Benefits 1995 Roald Hoffmann – Cornell University 1996 Yuan T. Lee – UC Berkeley 1997 George A. Olah – University of Southern California 1998 John C. Polanyi – University of Toronto 1999 Thomas R. Cech – HHMI; University of Colorado 2000 Ahmed H. Zewail – California Institute of Technology 2001 Michele Parrinello – ETH Zurich 2002 Harry B. Gray – California Institute of Technology 2004 Peter G. Schultz – Scripps Research Institute 2005 Steven Chu – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories 2006 Jean Fréchet – University of California, Berkeley 2007 Harold W. Kroto – Florida State University 2008 William Moerner – Stanford University 2013 Robert Langer – Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014 Omar M. Yaghi – University of California-Berkeley 2015 Robert H. Grubbs - California Institute of Technology 2016 Daniel G. Nocera, Harvard University 2017 Craig J. Hawker, University of California, Santa Barbara

Tuesday, October 24, 2017 Lecture 4 p.m. Room 102 Department of Chemistry Department of Chemistry School of Arts and Sciences School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6323 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania For information call (215) 898-9722 The Power of Organic Chemistry in Polymer Synthesis: Craig J. Hawker Translation of Basic Materials Research into Social Benefits Professor Craig J. Hawker, FRS is Clarke Professor and holds the Alan and Ruth Heeger Chair of Interdisciplinary Science at UCSB where he directs the California Nanosystems Institute and the Dow Materials The orthogonal functionalization of polymeric materials is a critical Instiutute. He came to UCSB in 2004 after eleven years as a Research design strategy for the “bottom-up” fabrication of nanostructured Sta Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. systems. In synthesizing these nanostructures, functional group interconversion and efficient organic transformations are key. With Professor Hawker’s research activities focus on synthetic polymer inspiration from these natural systems, such as marine organisms chemistry and nanotechnology, integrating fundamental studies which use organic building blocks in unique ways to achieve with the development of nanostructured materials for advanced materials with exceptional properties, the design of synthetic properties and functions in microelectronics and biotechnology. building blocks to mimic these capabilities and extend them to This work has led to over 500 peer-reviewed papers and 70 patents common polymeric materials and commercial products will be with a number of materials being commercialized. He has helped demonstrated. establish a range of start-up companies - Relypsa, Intermolecular, Olaplex, Tricida and has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors. For his pioneering studies, Professor Hawker’s recent honors include the 2017 Charles G. Overberger International Prize for Excellence in Polymer Research, the 2016 Belgian Polymer Award, the 2013 American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry, the 2012 Centenary Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry and an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society in 2011. Professor Hawker has been honored with election to the Royal Society in 2010.